Every time you promote something in your business, you learn something. The trouble is, most of us are already onto the next thing before we stop long enough to work out what those lessons actually were.

It doesn’t have to be a huge launch either. A workshop, new service, event, webinar, seasonal offer or simply a month where you made a concerted effort to bring in more bookings can tell you a lot about your marketing. In this episode of the Talk podcast, we’re looking at how to review those past promotions so the next one starts with what you already know, rather than starting from scratch. Lessons you can learn from past…

Did the Promotion Actually Work?

Sales and bookings matter, but they aren’t the whole story. You might have sold out but had to work ridiculously hard to do it, or perhaps sales were lower than expected while enquiries were higher than ever.

Look beyond the final number and ask what actually happened. Did everyone buy in the final few days? Were people interested but the timing didn’t suit? Did you attract plenty of attention but lose people before they converted? Those details give you something useful to work with next time.

Look at What Got People Interested

Go back through the emails, posts, videos, networking, referrals and conversations around the promotion. What actually got a response?

Sometimes the beautifully designed sales graphic isn’t the hero at all. It might be the story you told, the video you recorded or a phrase people kept repeating back to you. Equally, if something you spent hours creating did absolutely nothing, that’s useful information too. It isn’t personal. It’s data you can learn from.

Did You Give the Promotion Enough Time?

Small business owners are particularly good at deciding to run something next week and then wondering why eight people haven’t immediately rearranged their lives to book.

Your audience has calendars, commitments, bills, kids and plenty of other things competing for their attention. They often need time to discover the offer, think about it, see it again, work out whether it fits and then act. When reviewing a promotion, look at whether you genuinely gave it enough room to work.

Did You Talk About It Enough?

You have lived and breathed the promotion. You wrote the page, created the graphics, sent the emails, and probably talked about it with your team and over dinner. Your audience hasn’t.

Don’t measure how much you promoted something by how tired you became of hearing about it. Look at how many genuine opportunities your audience had to see it, understand it and take action. Quite often, when we actually count them, there were far fewer than we imagined.

Listen to the Questions People Asked

The questions you answered during a promotion are marketing material for next time. If several people asked whether something was suitable for them, what was included, how it worked or what they needed to bring, make a note of it.

Those questions can become additions to your sales page, emails, social posts, FAQs or videos. Your audience is quite literally telling you what information they need before they can make a decision.

Find the Friction

If people showed interest but didn’t take the next step, have a look at the experience from their side.

Could they find the price? Did the button actually work? Was the next step obvious? Were there too many choices? Did you ask them to complete an enormous form just to ask a simple question?

You’ve already done the work to get someone interested. Don’t accidentally make it difficult for them once they arrive.

Was It Worth the Effort?

A campaign can make money and still be something you don’t want to repeat in exactly the same way.

Consider the time, cost and energy involved. Were you creating everything at the last minute? Answering messages at all hours? Using ten different systems to make the promotion work?

Business takes work, but there may be things you can prepare earlier, template or automate so the next campaign works better without creating unnecessary work for you.

Don’t Throw Away What Worked

You don’t get bonus points for creating every marketing campaign from scratch.

Keep the emails that performed well. Save the images that connected. Record the questions people asked. Keep the wording that resonated and note the processes that made things easier.

Over time, this is one of the ways marketing becomes easier. You build on what you have already learnt instead of repeatedly returning to a blank page.

Your Challenge

After your next promotion, give yourself 10 to 15 minutes to write down:

• What worked and what didn’t?
• What surprised me?
• What did customers ask?
• What would I start earlier next time?
• What would I use again?
• What could I make easier?

Not every promotion will be your best one. Sometimes the timing will be wrong, the message won’t quite land, or you’ll discover your customers wanted something different from what you expected.

But a promotion isn’t wasted when you learn from it.

Before you rush into the next campaign, go back and review the last one. Your past promotions have already given you a head start. Use it.

Highlights

• 00:00 Why Reviews Matter
• 01:13 Did It Work
• 02:05 What Sparked Interest
• 03:29 Timing And Frequency
• 05:32 Questions To Capture
• 06:21 Where People Got Stuck
• 07:40 Was It Worth It
• 08:37 Reuse What Worked
• 09:18 Quick Review Checklist
• 09:56 Final Takeaways